Have you ever noticed on sitcoms where the main characters have kids, that there's always one episode where one of their children get lost? Most of the time, it's the kid's fault. So while the parent is having a fit, the kid is wandering around, ignorant to the fact that they're lost. Of course, in the end everyone's united, and there's some sort of sappy ending. I don't think people know how seriously kids take TV. Adults know that these things do happen, but it would be better if they didn't. As for me, I saw one of those episodes when I was four, and thought I was really missing out; I had never been lost. I always hated going to the mall with my mom. I had to walk for a really long time, and she always took forever in the stores! After being in the mall for an hour or two, I had probably asked some variation of "Are we done yet?" at least 5 times, with some response like "Almost, just a few more stores." On this particular occasion, it was a different story, kind of. It was the summer before kindergarten and I got to pick out my outfit for the first day of school, not that I really cared about clothes, but I could choose which store we were going to. I picked The Ballroom Store, of course. The Ballroom Store was a store in Center Mall right beside Zellers, and it wasn't really called the Ballroom Store. It was called something like Young Canada; the Ballroom Store sounded cooler. This store has cool things like plastic jewelry, teddy bear backpacks, and even though it had lots of boring clothes, the ballroom more than made up for it. When we walked into the store, all I could smell was the scent of new clothes. It was kind of gross, but I distracted myself by hiding between the clothes in one of the many circular clothes racks. I sat and waited thinking "She'll never find me here, I can't even see her!" Unfortunately, by the time she walked by I was bored, so I jumped out and screamed "Boo!" but she didn't even notice. I decided that wasn't very much fun and that I should just pick out my outfit as quickly as possible. I found a blue dress with a pink elephant, my mom found some matching pink panty hose and I insisted on these pretty barrettes that had ribbons hanging down from them. I tried everything on, my mom approved, and I was ready to go home. My mom insisted on finding my brother clothes, and it was a lucky thing too because I had almost forgotten about the ballroom. My mom picked out some clothes for my brother, and I promised that I would stay in the ballroom while she went with him to try on his clothes. That's when a stroke of genius hit me. I would hide under all the balls, wait until my mom came back, and when she was upset that she couldn't find me, I would jump out of the balls, surprise her, we would be united, and there would be a sappy ending. I prepared myself for this event by waiting under all the balls. Time went by, and I got tired of waiting, so I went to look for my mom. Only problem was I couldn't find her or the change rooms. I ran all around the store looking everywhere, but I couldn't find her. I remembered my mom always told me to never leave the store, I should stay in one place if I ever got lost. Thing is, she wasn't in this store, so she must be out in the mall�right? That's when I realized that this wasn't the same as TV shows, I was supposed to be having fun, and I wasn't, I wanted my mommy! I wandered franticly around the mall searching in all my mom's favourite stores, but no matter how hard I tried I couldn't find her. I walked through the mall sobbing and trying to find my way, I could barely see through my tears. I walked into a store, it didn't matter where I was as long as they might know my mommy. I walked up to the counter reciting my address in my head "1, 2, skip 3, 4 Tragina avenue south" and somehow managed to blurt out "I can't find my mommy!" though my tears. Someone brought me to the lottery booth where I was left to sit while someone called out "Would Birgit Mathieson please report to the lottery booth." every 2 minutes. I sat there worried that she had forgotten about me and went home. About ten minutes later my mom showed up, dragging my brother behind her. I blurted out "I couldn't find you mommy!" almost expecting her to yell at me for leaving the store. She never did yell at me for leaving the store, although she did seem worried and we left right away. For a moment I thought my plan had worked out, then my mom told me that I wouldn't be allowed to play in the ballroom alone anymore. Why didn't the TV tell me that one was coming? |
| THE BALLROOM STORE BY: HANNA MATHIESON |